Seeking the Bride

1. Seeking the Bride

2. Seeking the Bride • Christ Himself comes to seek His Church (Bride) Chapter 2:8-14 • He Warns the Church from its enemy Chapter 2:15-17 • The Feast –Wedding (Redemption) Chapter 3:1-11

3. 1- Christ Himself comes to seek His Church (Bride) 2:8-14 • 8 The voice of my beloved! Behold, he comes Leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills. • 10 My beloved spoke, and said to me: “ Rise up, my love, my fair one,  And come away. • The church pleases herself with thoughts of further communion with Christ. None besides can speak to the heart. She sees him come • Arise then, and come away from the world and the flesh, come into fellowship with Christ. This blessed change is owing wholly to the approaches and influences of the Sun of righteousness.

4. 1- Christ Himself comes to seek His Church (Bride) Chapter 2:8-14 • 11 For lo, the winter is past,  The rain is over and gone. • 12The flowers appear on the earth; The time of singing has come, And the voice of the turtledove  Is heard in our land. • The winter may mean years passed in ignorance and sin, unfruitful and miserable • Christ's coming in the flesh. He comes as pleased with his own undertaking. He comes speedily. He comes to save His people.

5. 1-Christ Himself comes to seek His Church (Bride) 2:8-14 • 14 “ O my dove, in the clefts of the rock, In the secret places of the cliff, Let me see your face, Let me hear your voice;  For your voice is sweet,  And your face is lovely.” • The church is Christ's dove; she returns to him • Christ is the Rock, in whom alone she can think herself safe, and find herself easy, as a dove in the hole of a rock, when struck at by the birds of prey

6. 2-He Warns the Church from its enemy 2:15-17 • 15 Catch us the foxes, The little foxes that spoil the vines, For our vines have tender grapes. • The first risings of sinful thoughts and desires. • The beginnings of trifling pursuits which waste the time, trifling visits, • A sinful start that charged to believers heart to mortify their sinful appetites and passions, that destroy their graces and comforts, and crush good beginnings • Small departures from truth, whatever would admit some conformity to the world; all these, and many more, are little foxes which must be removed.

7. 2-He Warns the Church from its enemy 2:15-17 • 16 My beloved is mine, and I am his.       He feeds his flock among the lilies. • This shows Christ's gracious presence among believers. He is kind to all his people. It becomes them to believe this, when under desertion and absence, and so to ward off temptations.

8. 2-He Warns the Church from its enemy 2:15-17 • 17 Until the day breaks  And the shadows flee away, Turn, my beloved, And be like a gazelleOr a young stag Upon the mountains of Bether. • And a day of comfort will come after a night of desertion. Come over the mountains of Bether, "the mountains that divide," looking forward to that day of light and love. Christ will come over every separating mountain to take us home to himself.

9. 3-The Feast –Wedding (Redemption) 3:1-11 • 4 Scarcely had I passed by them, When I found the one I love. I held him and would not let him go,  Until I had brought him to the house of my mother,  And into the chamber of her who conceived me. • The believer desires to make others acquainted with his Savior. • Wherever we find Christ, we must take him home with us to our houses, especially to our hearts; and we should call upon ourselves and each other, to beware of grieving our holy Comforter, and provoking the departure of the Beloved

10. 3-The Feast –Wedding (Redemption) Chapter 3:1-11 • 6 Who is this coming out of the wilderness Like pillars of smoke, Perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, With all the merchant’s fragrant powders? • A wilderness is an emblem of the world; the believer comes out of it when he is delivered from the love of its sinful pleasures and pursuits, and refuses to comply with its customs and fashions, to seek happiness in communion with the Savior. • A poor soul shall come up, at last, under the conduct of the Comforter; like a cloud of incense ascending from the altar

11. 3-The Feast –Wedding (Redemption) 3:1-11 • 7 Behold, it is Solomon’s couch,   With sixty valiant men around it,  Of the valiant of Israel.8 They all hold swords, Beingexpert in war. Every man has his sword on his thigh Because of fear in the night. • The believer is filled with the graces of God's Spirit; his devotions now are very lively. • These graces and comforts are from the heavenly Canaan. • He, who is the Peace of his people, the King of the heavenly Zion, has provided for the safe conveyance of his redeemed through the wilderness of this world.

12. 3-The Feast –Wedding (Redemption) 3:1-11 • 9 Of the wood of Lebanon Solomon the King Made himself a palanquin • The bed, or palanquin, was contrived for rest and easy conveyance, but its beauty and magnificence showed the quality of its owner. • The church is well guarded; more are with her than are against her: believers, when they repose in Christ, and with him, though they have their fears in the night, are yet safe.

13. 3-The Feast –Wedding (Redemption) 3:1-11 • 10 He made its pillars of silver, Its support ofgold, Its seat ofpurple, Its interior paved with love By the daughters of Jerusalem • 11 Go forth, O daughters of Zion, And see King Solomon with the crown With which his mother crowned him On the day of his wedding,  The day of the gladness of his heart • The Structure of the church is to denote the covenant of redemption, the way of our salvation. • This is work of Christ, which makes Him loved and admired in the eyes of believers. It is framed and contrived, both for the glory of Christ, and for the comfort of believers;

14. Glory Be To God Forever